Should I cover my tires?

wildtoad wrote:
Gdetrailor, we’ll I for one DO have lots of free time (isn’t that the idea behind retiring?), didn't mention blow outs, didn’t state or imply the Goodyear provided procedures were to be done every night, did not imply that all the steps were essential. If someone wants to extend the life of the tires on on their RV, following the advice of the manufacturer makes sense to me, especially considering the cost of new ones.

Spending an additional 10-15 minutes preparing my RV for storing it for months is time well spent, in addition to the time needed to winterize. Your mileage may vary.

I have retired, have lots of "free time" but I still do not wash my tires, put them to bed or put the trailer up on blocks.

Those are all outdated wives tales from a century ago when tires were not very good and made before carbon black was introduced to the tire building process.

The truth to tires is they are a "consumable" item.

Tires on RVs get a bad rap because folks forget just how old the tires are since they often age out before 1 or 2 32nds of an inch wears off the tread and they look like new after 10 yrs.

Put it another way, as an industry average vehicles are warranted in 12,000 mile/ 1 yr increments as an average daily driver.

Typical vehicle tire warranties are rated in miles due to tread wear. Typical warranties are 40K-80K.

80K warranty and you average 12K per yr means the tires will be 6.6 yrs old..

Reality is, I have never, ever seen more than 45K out of a set of vehicle tires.. Meaning I exchange my vehicle tires every 3.75 yrs at 12K..

But in the past, I typically drove 20K+ miles per yr for work meaning I was replacing vehicle tires every 2 yrs..

My vehicle tires never had a chance to age out, instead the tread was worn off before the tires had a chance to rot off.

Yes, it is a shame to trash 7-10yr tires that have 90% of the tread left, but the tire carcass has aged out and is no longer safe..

The best advise on RV tires is to air them up to sidewall pressure before storing for 6 months. They will lose 1 to 2 PSI per month on average.

That's it, nothing else needs to be done, replace them after 6 yrs regardless of how pretty they look..

After 40 yrs of owning and driving vehicles I have lost two vehicle tires and both of those were from unavoidable junk like nails and bolts on the road.

20 yrs of towing a trailer, have lost zero tires due to them rotting from sun damage.

Had 1 tire on my 10K flatbed trailer that broke a belt internally (sun doesn't shine were the belt broke)and that was most like due to multiple severe overloads last summer hauling 10+ loads 9K of firewood plus 4K in tractor plus the 2.4K of the trailer (15.4K lbs each load).

If it makes you feel good to put it on blocks, slather goopy stuff on them, cover them with covers and over pressure them by 25% then by all means go ahead.. But, it only makes you feel good and does not help the tires..

And I would question the overpressure by 25%.. That ultimately will over stress and stretch the tires and once stretched the rubber and belts strength will be compromised and never go back to their original state without damage.